Unveiling the Mirror: Afro‐Brazilian Identity and the Emergence of a Community School Movement

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adjoa Florência Jones de Almeida
2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Collins

AbstractThis essay examines theories of value and property in relation to conceptions of morality, correct comportment, and their influences on Afro-Bahians subject to late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century cultural heritage initiatives in the Pelourinho neighborhood of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. This urban space is the nation's most expressive site for the performance of Afro-Brazilian identity and the commemoration of tradition. In analyzing the role of morality in Pelourinho-based cultural property-making, I focus on popular critiques of heritage discourse to argue that, in conjuring a particular form of cultural heritage that bears a distinct resemblance to UNESCO's immaterial patrimony programs, the Bahian state has piggybacked on social scientific evaluations of local people's moral comportments in order to put together an archive of everyday life that exists as a standing reserve for histories of Brazil and the marketing of cultural heritage. This data produced in an effort to regulate the historical center has revolved around the state's evaluation of the moral probity and everyday habits of the Pelourinho's overwhelmingly Afro-Brazilian populace. The result is a conceptualization of cultural labor that emanates not from the capacities and struggles of producers, but from a decentered or distributed view of production, which I tie to the existence of this archive. Consumers, or visitors to the historical center, as well as historical archives thus play a critical role in this form of constructing property and understanding the sources and fungibility of labor in a global economy for multicultural difference that depends on an emphasis on futurity and market reflexivity.


1996 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Charles Chasteen

AbstractRio's pre-Lenten carnival and its Afro-Brazilian dance, samba, have been symbols of Brazilian identity since the 1930s. This article explores the choreographical antecedents of samba, before the crystallisation of the modern dance genre with that name, highlighting the importance of earlier social dances in the evolution of the twentieth-century symbol. It traces the development of carnival dancing in Rio de Janeiro from the time when few danced, through the long reign of the polka, to the emergence of generalised carnival street dancing around 1889. A modified view of the roots of samba has interesting implications for on-going debates on the social meaning of Brazilian carnival.


Diogenes ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reginaldo Prandi

GeoTextos ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Fernando Diniz ◽  
Gisele Oliveira Miné ◽  
Maria Aparecida dos Santos Tubaldini

O ano de 1988 representou um importante marco histórico para as comunidades afro-brasileiras, quando, pela primeira vez, lhes foram reconhecidos os direitos constitucionais às suas terras e à valorização de suas práticas culturais. Desde então, diversas comunidades se reorganizaram internamente e se articularam externamente a fim de resgatar e revitalizar as celebrações, festividades e tradições herdadas de seus antepassados. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho busca refletir sobre os processos de (re)significação e (re)invenção cultural nas comunidades quilombolas de Moça Santa, município de Chapada do Norte, e Quilombo, município de Minas Novas, Vale do Jequitinhonha/MG. O resgate e a valorização de danças, cantos e celebrações consideradas localmente como “tradicionais”, a exemplo do Grupo Curiango em Moça Santa, e do Conjunto da Marujada, em Quilombo, ganharam maior ímpeto a partir do reconhecimento destes territórios como remanescentes de quilombos, mobilizando jovens e adultos para a prática e divulgação de suas expressões culturais. Por meio de observações empíricas e de relatos obtidos em campo, percebe-se que os grupos Curiango e Marujada são importantes referências simbólico-culturais destes territórios, contribuindo para integração e coesão comunitária, para a afirmação de sua identidade afro-brasileira, e, em especial, para a legitimação de seu auto-reconhecimento como remanescentes de quilombos. Abstract CULTURAL QUILOMBOLA (RE)SIGNIFICATION AND (RE)INVENTION: THE AFRO-BRAZILIAN SPATIALITIES OF MARUJADA AND CURIANGO’S GROUP IN VALE DO JEQUITINHONHA-MINAS GERAIS-BRASIL The year 1988 was an important landmark for afro-brazilian communities, when, for the first time, their constitutional rights were accorded to their land and exploitation of their cultural practices. Since then, several communities were internally reorganized and externally articulated in order to rescue and revitalize the celebrations, festivities and traditions inherited from their ancestors. In this context, this paper seeks to reflect about the processes of cultural (re)signification and (re)invention in the maroon communities of Moça Santa, municipality of Chapada do Norte and Quilombo, municipality of Minas Novas, in Vale do Jequitinhonha/MG. The rescue and recovery of dances, songs and celebrations locally regarded as “traditional”, like the Curiango’s group in Moça Santa, and the Marujada’s group in Quilombo, gained acceptance from the recognition of these territories as Quilombo, mobilizing youth and adults to practice and dissemination their cultural expressions. Through empirical observations and reports from the field, you realize that the Curiango and Marujada groups are important symbolic and cultural references of these territories, contributing to integration and community cohesion, for affirmation of his afro-brazilian identity, and especially, for legitimation of his self - recognition as Quilombo .


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Raimundo C. Barreto

Brazil is home for the largest African diaspora. In spite of that, until the end of the twentieth century, Brazil's Africanness tended to be hidden under the Eurocentric construct of a colour-blind national identity and the myth of racial democracy. Since the 1990s, Brazil's negritude or blackness has emerged as an important source of culture, knowledge, identity and public policy. Such a reconfiguration of Brazilian identity and culture to privilege black agency challenges common assumptions in the study of the religions of Brazil, including Christianity. This article examines the impact of Afro-Brazilian spirituality and religions upon Brazilian Christianity, shedding new light on Afro-Brazilian contributions to the formation of Brazil's cultural and religious mosaic. It highlights the often-overlooked agency of Afro-Brazilians as social, religious and cultural actors who have not only resisted colonial and neocolonial efforts to whitewash Brazilian culture, but have also positively contributed to the production of culture, knowledge and identities through a dynamic relation with their African roots. Finally, focusing on Afro-Brazilian spirituality as an important shaper of Brazilian Christianity, this article advances a decolonial perspective that draws attention to the ways Brazil's black Christianity contributes to the production of counter-hegemonic forms of knowledge and knowing.


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